Charles Coughlin

Charles Coughlin

Charles Coughlin, the radio priest of Detroit, gave his 1st radio sermon Oct. 26, 1925, on WJR, and used radio to raise money to build his Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oak MI. He spoke out against the KKK, prohibition, and in favor of war veterans and the Bonus Army. He had a warm, inviting voice, and adopted an intimate style with emotion and expression and slight Irish brogue. He was supported by local Bishop Michael Gallagher and Leo Fitzpatrick of WJR. Detroit suffered more than most cities in Depression with one of the highest urban unemployment rates. On Jan. 12, 1930, the radio priest began emphasizing anti-communism and anti-semitism. On Oct 30, he denounced money changers and socialists and advocated nationalization of banks. His radio show was cancelled by CBS in April 1931, but he formed his own network of 35 stations. By 1931, he was getting 50,000 letters per week with a national audience of 40m and weekly donations of $20,000. He was pro-FDR until 1934 when he organized the National Union for Social Justice to oppose FDR and Henry Morgenthau, praised Huey Long and Mussolini. He approved of the Nye Committee "devil theory" that the first world war had been caused by the "merchandizers of death" like DuPont. He opposed a Senate bill in 1934 that would allow U.S. to join the World Court, calling the Court a "Frankenstein raised by the international bankers and plutocrats of the world" His remarks caused 40,000 telegrams to flood the Senate and contributed to the Jan. 29, 1934, defeat of the bill 52-36. He made a speech May 22 at Madison Square Garden that he was "fighting mad" at such "enemies of the people"as J.P. Morgan, Bernard Baruch, and FDR (who vetoed a bonus bill that same day). He started the newspaper Social Justice, Jan., 1936, and on June 16 started the Union Party with "Liberty Bill" Lemke. By 1938 he was allied with the German-American Bund in a Christian Front against Jews, unions, communists. The new NAB code in 1939 caused radio stations to cancel Coughlin's broadcasts and he was off the air by April, 1940. In 1942 his newspaper was banned from the mails under the Espionage Act for being pro-Nazi and ceased publication